Tag Archives | Personality

Fall is here and this is the last chance for bees to prepare their winter supplies. Flowers are rare, wind is getting stronger and temperature drops. It’s not a good condition to collect honey. As a smart species, during hard time like this; specially in cold, rain ,or windy, bees will stay in their hive. They don’t want to take high risk moves that give them very little benefit.
During the Fall, bees fix all cracks on the hive and reduce entrance size using propolis. It’s a smart action for little bugs. The egg laying of the queen bee tapers off or stops completely as the temperature drops. As the temperature getting colder, the bees will form tight cluster to keep the brood (eggs, larvae, pupae) warm. Bees are smart and hard working creature , but they emphasize smart above hard work. When the weather is too windy or cold, bees will stay in the hive. During winter, bees will form cluster to warm each other, the colder the weather the tighter the cluster.
Same like bees, traders should observe the market prior to trading execution. We need to recognize profitable trading hours, understand market volatility, plan trade strategy, know pair characteristics, etc. For example, when the market is quiet and in consolidation pattern, it’s not a good ‘weather’ to trade breakout strategy. It is wiser to stay out of market and make preparation for incoming volatility. Same like bee; bee’s job is to find flower and collect nectar, not grow the flowers. Trader’s job is to identify market trend and volatility, not to move the market.
Traders are supposed to work smart same as bees, not only work hard. Trading is supposed to be something to enjoy, not stress up.

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Life is a journey, sprinkled with dreams, filled with courage, and expressed in action. – Tanadi Santoso

Most people I know can be divide into two groups. The first is a group that love to complain for whatever they find. The second is a group that love to dream. The similarity from both : nothing change on their life. They do the same pattern everyday. The way they think is the same. How can you expect a different event if you’re using the same formula over and over again?
A few of them want to learn new stuff. The problem is, they don’t implement their new knowledge. So when I talk to this people, I always find new interesting topics that are useful for me. It become useful because I learn deeper and act to make it real.
Same with trading. When friends or family know I do trading, they start to talk how risky is trading and they have lists of people who lose money in trading. Before, I try to give them the right perspective. But, by the time, I just smile to them and make them feel right on their opinion. Why? Because in trading, I need to meet people that can trade or have interest in trading. I don’t waste my time and energy to talk to ‘deaf’ (psychologically deaf).
Few from my friends have the same interest in money and we talk about money and investment. Also sharing opportunity that we could work on. Still, in trading they don’t ‘jump into the pool’. They follow the news, do practice trading, but don’t have real account. In order to make your dream come true, you need knowledge follow with act to make it real. You need both.
Like Tanadi wrote, : you need courage and express it in action. Most of people I know are afraid to make mistake and don’t have courage to responsible for their act. So they stay in their comfort zone. The problem is, world changes. And lately the changes is crushing economy growth. Require advance skill to survive in the next economy turbulence. For me, as long I can fix my mistake, I’ll imply new skill in order to make my dream come true.

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One day a watchmaker asks to a watch, that he is working on, “hi watch, could you tick at least 31,536,000 times in a year? “.

“WHAT???” the watch freaks out, “31,536,000 times? How is it possible for me to tick that many? I’m going to broke into pieces in no time”.

“Okey, how about 86,400 ticks in a day?” asks the watchmaker.
“86,400 times with this tiny hour hands and parts?!” the watch replies.
“Could you do 3,600 ticks in an hour then?” asks the watchmaker patiently.
“3,600 in an hour? Still kind a lot for a small piece like me” answers the watch.
“If I ask you to do 1 tick for every second, could you do that?” the watchmaker asks again.
“One tick for every second? That’s easy” answers the watch.

After the watchmaker finished the tiny watch, it starts ticking every second. From that point, the tiny watch does 3,600 ticks in an hour, and does 86,400 ticks in a day, and makes 31,536,000 ticks in a year….. EASILY.

Sometimes we set an irrational target that looks so huge and places us under stress. For example, I have to make $5,000 in a week or I need to grow my investment 10% in a month. It burdens us psychologically , even before we start trading. It is not a good starting point. Rather then set a ‘huge’ target, it is better to set a rational target. Rational target is different for every person. Chop your target into smaller piece to reduce your stress level.
This is how I set my target. How much I need to support my daily lifestyle, chop it into smaller piece. Then, I work on how I set up my next trade and how big the risk I can carry. Trading is business, so I have to prepare for the worst. However, I also want to get the most out of it too. With good plan, I can prepare my trade without being stress out. Below is an example, please adjust to your own comfortable conditions.
Let’s say my wage is $9/hour. That is equal to $1440/month. Then, $1440 divided by 20 days (open market) in a month, it will give $72/day. I, then, look for good setups and trade 3 or 4 pairs per day. With standard account (1 pip = $1) and starting lots size of 0.1, I need to gain 72 pips a day. It means per pair, I aim for 20 pips, which is a reasonable range for a pair to move in a day. I can increase the potential income by placing higher lots size or increasing the trading frequency. By breaking down my target into smaller pieces, my goal seems achievable and realistic and it gives peace in my mind.
Start trading with a good plan, enjoy it (no matter profit or loss), learn from mistakes, watch market behavior, and repeat the same steps each and every day. That is how I enjoy my trading days. Happy trading.

Get piece for your peace.

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The Apiary Fund model is based on the characteristics of an apiary which is beehive where not just one bee but a whole community of bees work together to manage the hive. Just like a beehive, the Apiary Fund (the beehive) grows their capital (the honey) with the help from their traders (the bees).

The Apiary Fund offers an online trader development program with the objective of helping people learn how to effectively manage investment money. The challenge for most people is that in order to master the art and skill of money management, you have to manage real money in real-life markets and most people either don’t have the knowledge or capital to endure the learning curve. The Apiary Fund solves this problem by providing their students with real money from the company and gives them the opportunity to share in the trading profits as the learn. In the same way a hive supports the bee, the Apiary Fund supports its traders by giving them the knowledge and capital they need to work through the learning process.

In the same way the Apiary Fund shares characteristics with the beehive, our associates share certain characteristics with the bee. Here are few of the characteristics our successful traders share:

Work Ethic
Bee’s are busy. Bee’s buzz around all day long sometimes travelling up to three miles to find a single drop of nectar to bring back to the hive. Successful traders must have a solid work ethic in order to learn how to make money in the market. The good news, if you’ve ever enjoyed the sweet taste of honey, you’ll know the work has great rewards in the end. And a good money manager would agree!

Adaptability
Honey bees are very adaptable. This is an important skill that every fund manager must have. The financial markets are always changing. There is no one “magic” strategy to profit from the market. A fund manager needs to be able to adjust his / her trading strategies, in order to survive in the market.

Responsiveness
In winter, there is much less work to be done and the bees slow down. Similar to the bees, the financial markets also have seasonal cycles. During holiday seasons, like Christmas or New Year, the trading volume is very low. It is not advisable to trade during these seasons, as a trader may be caught in the market and could not exit with profit.

Conservative
As known, food source of bees is nectar, which is not possible to be found during winter. For this reason, they combine the nectar collected in summer time, produce honey, and store it for winter. This shows why money management is vital in trading. The Apiary Fund teaches money management at the beginning of its program. One of the Apiary Fund’s policies is to stop trading at 2% daily loss. The purposes are to protect capital and keep traders psychology intact. The first important thing for fund managers to do is to protect their capital before they make profit.

Remember “keep your ‘honey’ to live longer through the hard time” the coming winter months.

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We at the Apiary Fund are very proud of the great products we’ve created to help our traders succeed. So proud, in fact, that we have offer some of them to the public for free! In this blog post, we’ve listed our top three free features:

1. The Investor Profile
The Investor Profile is a personality assessment we launched last year to help traders recognize character traits in themselves that will affect how they trade. Because every trader is different, identifying and understanding your strengths and weaknesses is crucial to finding success in the markets. How can you play to your strengths if you don’t know them?

2. The Sessions Clock
The sessions clock is a tool the Apiary Fund developed to help traders keep time. Because the forex market is a 24-hour market, there is always at least one market open. Knowing when each market opens and closes will help you avoid any unexpected jumps in volatility. So, whether you’re on the road or just experimenting with trading at different times of the day, the sessions clock can help you keep things straight!

3. The Trader Development Preview
The Trader Development Program is Apiary’s training curriculum, developed to help our traders learn the ins and outs of the market in the most effective way. As a preview, The Apiary Fund offers the first course to the public for free! Just enter your name and email on the Apiary Fund’s homepage!

While we do offer some great features free of cost, we don’t just put our best stuff in the window. We have a wealth of knowledge and resources to help make Apiary Fund traders successful!

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Well, this is been something of a power month for the Apiary Fund, and we couldn’t be more anxious for what’s coming up! As a part of our January wrap-up, let’s take a look at our biggest headline:

The Investor Profile

An early release of the Apiary’s Investor Profile was actually announced in December, and it’s been a huge hit! This month we extended beyond Apiary associates and launched the Investor Profile to the public.

As our traders have taken the personality test, it’s been interesting to see the many different personalities that have all come together to form this great community. And it hasn’t just been beneficial for us! The Investor Profile has provided our community of traders an opportunity for serious introspection and trading system adjustment. The new Investor Profile can be found here.

As for what’s coming up, I hope you’ve marked the Winter 2013 Traders’ Summit in your calendars! The three-day event starts on February 25, and there will be plenty of Q&A, so come prepared with any questions or topics you want to discuss with Apiary’s instructors and risk managers! There will also be some live trading sessions and training activities! Visit the Traders’ Summit site to learn more and reserve your seat!

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Yes! There are so many variables to investing; often it is difficult for the average investor to know where to begin. To make it easier for investors to understand their personal investing type, Apiary Fund launched its Investor Profile.

The Investor Profile started out as a project aimed to identify what makes an investor successful. We quickly realized that every investor is different and success comes when you can identify your strengths and weaknesses and then play to them.

Motivation, confidence, commitment, self-esteem, reasoning, and emotions are all contributors to the inner qualities influencing your ability to make investment decisions.

The Investor Profile determines the investor’s personality through 28 questions that have them select one of four words with which they most and least identify. Each investor receives a primary and secondary personality type that will help identify their overall profile.

It focuses on four personality types of traders:

Aggressive – Quick to enter a trade, but may exit quickly when a loss appears

Intuitive – Relies on emotional intuition to get in and out of trades

Analytical – Analyzes every possible variable before taking action

Methodical – Likely to trade on a system, not much regard to gains and losses

There is no such thing as a ‘bad profile’ for an investor. The Investor Profile simply identifies characteristics that people should know about themselves before they invest. After the assessment, the investor can see traits they may need to adjust and how they might respond to market changes.

After getting the results of the Investor Profile, participants have the option to obtain an eBook that goes into more depth about each of the 16 possible profile personality types. The additional information includes areas such as how you view yourself, basic desires and motivations, behavior under pressure and possible areas of improvement.

Disclaimer

Investing in securities, currencies, and/or contracts associated therewith carries inherent risks. No person, institution, or entity, including the Apiary Investment Fund, can guarantee a return on investment for such transactions. Neither the Apiary Investment Fund nor its representatives will recommend the purchase, sale, or transaction advice for a specific security.